o4.

Taemin frowns down at his page. “This is a terrible idea,” he mumbles, moving his hand to scribble out the equation -- but he pauses.

He lowers his hand, again. “A terrible idea.” He emphasizes, throwing the pencil down onto the table and groaning in aggravation.

At school, there is a “cute math equation” being passed around. Get your crush to solve it and you’ll get a date for sure, apparently. Taemin’s friend from school swore by it, saying that it was foolproof and that no one would be able to say no.

9x-7i > 3(3x-7u)

Taemin sighs down at the page, he has no confidence in this trick, whatsoever. Just because it works on the girls at school, that doesn’t mean it will work on Jinki. Jinki is smart, he isn’t going to be wooed by some stupid, high-school love confession. Taemin sighs, again.

“This will never work,” he says with a frown.

Jinki walks into the room suddenly and Taemin stiffens. Taemin takes in a slow breath as he watches Jinki put a dish into the sink, struggling to build up the courage to show Jinki his math question. Jinki begins to walk back out the door and Taemin gulps, deciding finally that it’s now or never.

“Hyung?” Taemin says, reaching out quickly to grab Jinki’s wrist before he leaves the room. “Hyung, I need some help with my homework.” He looks up at Jinki, batting his eyelashes in a way that always makes Kibum give in to his requests. Taemin hopes it will work on Jinki, too.

Jinki beams, pulling the chair beside Taemin out and sitting down at the dining table. Taemin mentally cheers. Jinki leans in, close to Taemin, and looks down at the papers scattered across the table. “What did you need help with?”

Taemin brings his math homework closer to Jinki and points at the question he’s pretending to have problem with. “This one. No matter what I do, I just can’t get the right answer!” he says, huffing out a breath and staring at the question with narrowed eyes.

“I’m sure you’re just making it out to be harder than it is.” Jinki says and looks up from the page to smile at Taemin, “I’ll explain it to you, then you’ll be able to do it.”

Taemin grins, “Thanks, hyung!” he hands Jinki his pencil and watches, feeling a mixture of excitement and uncertainty, as Jinki begins working on the question.

“Simplify, right?” Jinki asks, recopying the question onto a new sheet of paper.

Taemin nods once quickly and his hair flops into his face. He frowns and moves to brush the strands out of his eyes, but Jinki pushes them aside with the end of the pencil before Taemin has a chance to lift his hand.

He feels a blush spread across his face and looks away from Jinki’s smile. “Um, yeah. Simplify.” He says, stumbling over his words.

Jinki goes back to the equation, circling the second half of the question. “First, you expand the brackets, multiplying everything within them by three.” He explains, writing out the new equation under the old one. He looks over at Taemin, “Do you understand so far?”

Hiding a growing smile beneath his hand, Taemin nods.

“Next, you move this 9x,” he circles the nine on the right side of the equation, “to the other side,” he draws an arrow, “and it becomes a negative.” He indicates this clearly by drawing a thick negative sign beside the nine. “So, you subtract it from the 9x that is already there.”

He looks over at Taemin, to make sure he’s paying attention. “Which eliminates the ‘x’ from the equation, because nine minus nine is zero.”

Taemin pouts and clutches at Jinki’s sleeve. “Hyung, you make it look so easy!” he whines, over-exaggerating his anguish to make Jinki smile.

Jinki just blinks, holding the pencil out for Taemin. “Do you understand how to finish it now?”

Quickly, Taemin shakes his head, pushing Jinki’s hand back down onto the page. “No! I need you to finish it for me!” his heart pounds hard in his chest, worrying that Jinki will leave without solving the question.

Taemin tenses instantly. He stares over at Jinki, eyes widening in fear.

“I can help you whenever you need me, and if you need me now, then I’ll help you.” Jinki says with a smile.

Taemin relaxes, slightly. “I need you now, hyung.” He says, sounding more breathless than he had intended. He looks away in embarrassment when Jinki’s smile grows.

Jinki takes his hand off Taemin’s shoulder and claps once, “Alright, back to the question!”

Taemin sighs and turns back to the Jinki, watching him write the new equation beneath the old one. “You’re almost finished,” he observes, a smile spreading across his face.

Jinki nods. “All that’s left to do, is move this negative seven,” he circles the number, “to the other side, and divide the -21 by it.” He says, explaining each step carefully. “And, since we’re dividing by a negative, we need to flip the larger than sign around, making it less than.”

He writes the finished equation beneath the previous step, boxing it with a bright grin. “There you go, that’s how you figure out the answer!” Jinki looks over at Taemin. “Do you understand it?”

He bites his lip and looks at Jinki expectantly. “Yeah, I get it.”

Jinki blinks down at the question, processing it slowly. “Oh,” he says finally, and Taemin’s eyes brighten in joy.

Taemin reaches out for Jinki’s sleeve, tugging it lightly. “Do you get it?” he asks, trembling from the fear of rejection and the adrenaline rush of finally confessing.

“Cute,” Jinki says, smiling.

Discarding all of his previous doubts and worries, Taemin smiles and rests his head on Jinki’s shoulder. “I knew you’d like it.”

i<3u

/math nerd:'D I saw a group on Facebook dedicated to this cute little math equation, and that sort've inspired me to write this? Haha, I was actually going to end this with Onew being oblivious and Taemin hating life, but then I changed my mind. I hope Onew's explanations about how to solve the equation weren't too confusing. ;~; I tried to make it simple so people wouldn't get lost but idk if i succeeded.